 Poster: A snowHead
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Photograph by : Andy Clark/Reuters One of the support towers of a gondola in Whstler collapsed today stranding over 50 skiers and boarders on the coldest day so far this season. Fortunately there were only a handful of minor injuries but first hand reports suggest many were understandably well shaken by the experience...
Just heard this from one of my friends in Whistler. Apparently no one hurt but looks pretty serious with a tower collapsing and people stuck in cabins. One is suspended over the river and another landed on the bus stop at the bottom.
cbc
vancouversun
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Is this the big new lift that just opened?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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rob@rar, no, but it's the main way up to Blackcomb mountain from Whistler.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Based on the Vancouver Sun report it is the same manufacturer as the new Peak 2 Peak gondola: Doppelmayr-Garaventa.
First question that springs to mind is whether the tower itself buckled, or whether the tower remained intact but dislodged at its foundations?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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This photo (Vancouver Sun) ...
http://www.vancouversun.com/1083376.bin?size=620x400 ...
is really puzzling, because the tower looks too short, as if it's a section which has snapped from another section. But that's highly speculative.
The photo in this report (Financial Post) seems to show the same tower, again standing next to another tower. Here, the other tower apparently has nothing on top. Were they one and the same tower originally?
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1083192
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Wed 17-12-08 2:06; edited 1 time in total
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Based on the few images available it appears that the tower snapped part way up the mast, images appear to show the top of the tower on the ground adjacent to the standing lower part, other than being hit by something the only things I can think of that would have caused this are corrosion (possibly in bolts at a joint in the tower) or possibly metal fatigue, however I'm betting on the fault having occured at a joint in the structure
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This photo (CTV.ca) from a longer distance does seem to confirm that theory:
http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20081216/450_mynews_gondola_081216.jpg
The tower section has clearly pulled one cable (obviously the up-cable) down with the filled gondolas, and left the down-cable unsupported. The cable must have been put under substantial extra strain, but I guess there are big safety margins before they snap. It's impressive that there are no fatalities.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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ok, I have inspected from approx 5-10m away from the tower this evening
The tower is made up of the wider column, then a flange (bolted together) to another flange and then a narrower column to the top section where the runners etc are.
The tower appears to have failed by simply shearing off at the top of the lower column, where it was welded to the first flange.
Also, one of the cabs managed to fall onto a brand new bus shelter, the one over the creek that was a bit tricky for the rescue, and one fell into a house. The house is owned by a Whistler blackcomb patroller no less. By fell I mean the cabs stayed on the cable, but dropped due to the pylon pulling it down.
My pictures are not great, but will get soem daylight ones tomorrow. ones on the web are pretty good.
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poo-poo eh. Glad to hear nobody died from this!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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oh and this is NOT the peak 2 peak. That lift has a REALLY safe evacuation plan, a patroller using a modified push bike to pedal out from one mountain to the cabs (which can be upto something like 500m above the ground)....... perfect plan, can;t see that going wrong ever.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Where these towers from the ill-fated Yan built Quicksilver Express that this gondola replaced?
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yan lift towers are completely seperate design etc.
of course the media are talking all about the doppleymayer (sp?) lift company right now as they built nearly all the main lifts in Whistler, and most relevantly the new peak 2 peak
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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It'll be particularly interesting to see how Doppelmayr respond to this. Their huge success in the past decade or two has been partly the result of failings in other ski lift constructors (sometimes for their own safety lackings).
I visited the Doppelmayr factory in Wolfurt a long time ago, as the company was on the up and up, and met its boss Arthur Doppelmayr. There were a number of family members running the firm. They showed me a video of the engineering challenges they confronted in designing chairlifts, in terms of the chairs on a cable literally spinning around it in a hurricane. At the time they were engineering solutions to the issue of clamps on detachable chairlifts - not theirs, as I understood it - having proven deficiencies (there had been occasional incidents of chair units slipping down the cable and crashing into adjacent chairs).
It's a pretty phenomenal company, and Garaventa (which they merged with some time ago) has a long tradition of audacious cablecar engineering achievements - such as the Rotair in Engelberg with its revolving circular floor.
Right now they clearly have a PR mountain to climb. Their track record isn't faultless - their Nevis Range gondola in Scotland had a bubble crash to the ground in the opening days of its operations (or test operations - can't recall). But, almost by definition, they have been better at the game than their competitors. They didn't build the Vanoise Express 'peak to peak', which maybe inspired the similar Whistler-Blackcomb project and which recently experienced a huge failure. That was engineered by Pomagalski.
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Poster: A snowHead
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If my GF sees this post she will never set foot in a gondola again! And is she finds that bbc video then chairlifts will also be out of the question.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Is there any truth in the rumour that this accident was caused by a complex natural frequency vibration which instigated a damaging chain reaction after Masque dropped his wallet onto the Gondola floor?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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DB, how far is Wolfurt from Vienna? Please go to Doppelmayr immediately. Ask to see Artur (if the old boy is still alive) and he'll show you his wallabies in his zoo next to the factory. He might also tell you what the hell is going on in Whistler.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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More eye-witness comment:
Report: National Post
| Quote: |
Cameron Molitor, a visitor from Chicago, was under a bus shelter that was hit by a gondola cabin.
"I saw the chair swing out and then it hit the bus stop and made the window shatter," he wrote in an e-mail. |
Not the kind of thing you expect to happen at a bus stop.
Report: The Press Association
| Quote: |
| Skier Graeme Bell said he was in a car that hit the ground, breaking the windows and allowing occupants to scramble out. Mr Bell said one man had a bloody head. |
Presumably not the Graham Bell, since the first name is spelt differently in that report.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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David Goldsmith,
Wolfurt appears to be near Bregenz which is only ca 400 miles = 6 hours away. Steilhang is nearer (ca 125 miles = 2 hours from Munich) can't he go instead?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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OK. Suggest to him to take some wallaby food* - he'll get a warm welcome.
-----
* grass, leaves, roots
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Glad no-one is hurt!
Anyone any idea who made the Nevis gondola that (similar to the chair on the bbc video) slid back into another cabin?
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Doppelmayr. They also built the quad chair on Nevis, the cable of which was blown off its pylons in the opening winter (c. 1990).
But it has to be stressed that ski lift engineering is pioneer science.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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From paulhothersall's, report I'm still inclined to go with my earlier suggestion that the cause is likely to have been down to corrosion often these multi section masts are bolted together, it would not surprise me to find that the wrong bolts had been used or that a welded joint had rusted, one other possibility that occurs to me is that if this is a bolted connection someone may have not done the bolts up correctly after the last inspection
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This is someones comment on the CTV site...
"Get over yourself John. A car drove into the tower. This is actually a reason TO go to Whistler. It shows how well they do handle unforeseen issues like someone driving their car into a tower.
The situation isn't Whistler's fault-its the idiot behind the wheel."
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| shoogly wrote: |
Glad no-one is hurt!
Anyone any idea who made the Nevis gondola that (similar to the chair on the bbc video) slid back into another cabin? |
As David Goldsmith wrote earlier : Doppelmayr
[edit] I see that's now already been posted - sorry, no delete button here for this message.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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The gondola slide-back was a preventable accident however. From what I recall when the report came out it was said warning alarms were ignored and the system allowed to run.
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Indeed. I think Nevis Range were held responsible - not Doppelmayr.
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You know it makes sense.
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A whole load of words (including the spelling error "understandabley") have been added to PhotoTim's opening post of this thread. And a photo's been inserted. There's no indication of an edit footnote on the posting.
Also:
| Quote: |
| One of the support towers of a gondola in Whstler colapsed |
A missing I , and a missing L.
This seems very odd! Is that PhotoTim's work, or the work of a phantom editor?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Winterhighland wrote: |
| Where these towers from the ill-fated Yan built Quicksilver Express that this gondola replaced? |
The Creekside Gondola replaced the Quicksilver Express and goes from Creekside base to the bottom of the red chair. The Excalibur Gondola is a completely different gondola that runs from skiers plaza at Whistler base (next to the Whistler gondola) and goes up Blackcomb mountain.
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Poster: A snowHead
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David Goldsmith, forchewnateley this is just a internet 4run and not a nusepaper.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Does anyone know how crucial a lift this is? Does its absence make it much more difficult to get around the ski area? 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| slikedges wrote: |
| Does anyone know how crucial a lift this is? Does its absence make it much more difficult to get around the ski area? |
Not very, to be honest. I think the only real valuable function is as a way of getting from the Whistler base over the Blackcomb. From Blackcomb, there are better ways up. There is no terrain that is accesses that cannot be accessed otherwise.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks for noticing David, its not my doing, I is well good at spelling
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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This could have been so much worse, think people have been really lucky
Hope they all make a speedy recovery
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ami in berlin, thanks, I'll be over the Blackcomb side this year, so I guess may have to just be mindful at end of day 
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could this tower be one where the cable goes under the runners - that is, the tension in the cable is stretching the tower rather than compressing it. if the tower failed it would then be lifted up before it fell - there would be bad smell in the gondolas for a while.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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btw - what is a typical rescue plan if you are stranded on lift that cant be reached from below?
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eithnem, THe lifties shin along the cable and lower you down by rope.
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